Canada faces off against the U.S. in sitting volleyball next month

If you loved the Paralympic Games, you won’t want to miss these matches… Come to watch and learn!

Sports fans in the Ottawa-Gatineau area will have the opportunity to witness world-class para-sport when Volleyball Canada’s men's sitting volleyball team plays the U.S. sitting team at the Centre Sportif de Gatineau, April 4 to 6.

“We are very excited at the opportunity to come together in Gatineau to train at the national men’s training centre, and showcase the sport of sitting volleyball,” said Ray Sewell, Canada’s men’s sitting coach. “The team has not been together since the beginning of February, and we are looking to build off of what we accomplished in Colorado Springs where we played the U.S.A. in four exhibition matches.”

Although the U.S. swept those games, it did make for exciting volleyball and provided excellent competition experience for both teams.

In addition to the games, a clinic on Saturday April 05 will give athletes and coaches exposure to the sport. The “Introduction to Sitting Volleyball Clinic” is an opportunity for anyone who is interested in sitting volleyball to come and out learn more about the sport, and watch a Canadian Team practice and train with some of the athletes. This clinic will feature a short classroom session that will go over the rules and characteristics of the game through a variety of photos and videos. Clinic participants will receive information handouts from the international sitting volleyball resource VolleySlide. The clinic will conclude with participants having the opportunity to sit down and scrimmage with some of Canada's National Team sitting athletes.

Sitting Volleyball for physically impaired athletes is part of the Summer Paralympic Games and the 2015 Parapan American Games, which will take place in Toronto.

This upcoming series of games in Gatineau is made possible through the partnership of the Ontario Volleyball Association, with the assistance of the Trillium Foundation, and the Ville de Gatineau. More info here.